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of the International Civil AviationOrganization (ICAO) regulatory authority, aswell as the European Single European SkyResearch (SESAR) and US NextGen air trafficmanagement projects.

Global integration activityICAOICAO established the Unmanned AircraftSystems Study Group (UASSG) in 2007 to actas a focal point for UAS interoperability andto develop the global Standards and

Recommended Practices(SARPs), Procedures andGuidance materialneeded for UAS integra-tion. In 2011, ICAOpublished Circular 328,Unmanned AircraftSystems (UAS) providingstrategic guidance forregulatory development.

RPAS will operate inthe performance-basedglobal air navigationsystem envisaged in the

ICAO ‘One Sky’ vision. The Global ATM Operational Concept,

2005, and the Global Air Navigation Plan,latest draft 2012, define the future concept ofoperations, and provide a planning frameworkwith modular building blocks — Aviation

Aremotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) isa very specific type of unmannedaircraft (UA), one where the pilotis not on board. A RPA is part of

a remotely-piloted aircraft system (RPAS),which also contains one or more remote pilotstations, command and control links and allother necessary elements.

The objective of integration is to allowRPAs to operate safely in the same airspace asmanned aircraft, ensuring RPAS operationsare seamless and transparent for ATMpurposes, with no adverse impact on otherairspace users and providing internationalinteroperability.

Integration is complex and demanding. Thetop priority is safety. Numerous technicalsolutions need to be specified, designed andproved. Regulations and procedures must beharmonised worldwide. Aviation issues areintertwined with wider questions in sensitiveareas such as privacy.

Integration: What’s required?The main requirements for integration are:

1. Social acceptance, principally the resolu-tion of safety, privacy and data protectionconcerns.

2. The provision of safe separation andcollision avoidance, including an effectivedetect-and-avoid/sense-and-avoid(DAA/SAA) capability to provide anequivalent to the human ability to see andavoid.

3. Designation, provision and protection ofthe radio frequency spectrum required forcommunications (including ATC andGPS) and command and control (C2).

4. A regulatory system for certification,airworthiness, operator approval and crewlicensing.

5. Addressing the concerns of traditional

airspace users regarding the potentialimpact of RPAS on their operations.

6. Contingency procedures and mechanismsto cover C2 link failure, loss of GPS andother eventualities.

7. ATM procedures which recognise theperformance characteristics and flightprofiles of unmanned aircraft.

8. Compatibility of RPAS with key elementsof the air navigation system — includingfuture 4D Trajectory-based Operation,and System-Wide InformationManagement (SWIM).

9. Management ofhuman factors issues,including pilot role andbehaviour in remoteworking.

10. Extremely high secu-rity levels for controlstations, commandand control systems,radio links and infor-mation systems.

11. Definition of respon-sibilities for RPASoperations and legalliability for any third party damage arising,and provision of adequate insurancearrangements.

The following sections describe a selection ofthe most significant global integration activities

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Integration is complexand demanding.Numerous technicalsolutions need to bespecified, designedand proved.

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The integration of remotely-piloted aircraft into the future airnavigation system is one of thekey challenges for aviationregulatory authorities and futureair traffic control systems. JOHNPLUQUET reports.

System Block Upgrades (ASBUs) — andassociated technology roadmaps.

A Block Upgrade is a package of modules.Each module provides a specific operationalimprovement with a business case, equipmentand systems requirements, standards andprocedures, and a regulatory approval plan.

Three Block Upgrade modules relatespecifically to RPA and RPAS matters:

● B1-90 (readiness date 2018) representsthe first stage of moving from accommo-dation of RPAs to integrated transparentoperation. It will implement basic proce-dures for RPA operation in non-segre-gated airspace, and will bringairworthiness standards and requirementsfor remote pilot licensing and C2,Communication and detect-and-avoidperformance

● B2-90 (2023) will provide wider access toairspace, with refinements to approvaland certification processes, operationalprocedures and communication perfor-mance requirements; C2 link failureprocedures will be standardised and DAAtechnologies will be more advanced

● B 3 - 9 0(2028) willbring furtherimprovements, enablingRPAs to operate safely in all classesof airspace, without increasing riskto other airspace users. ATM, certifi-cation and approval procedures will bein place. Separation minima will havebeen defined and airborne and ground-based DAA will operate to certified proce-dures and standards.

Integration was discussed at the 12th AirNavigation Conference in 2012. States wereasked to support ICAO's work, and to liaiseclosely with ICAO and each other toharmonise any interim provisions necessarywhile ICAO work is in progress.

Most of the Annexes to the ChicagoConvention require amendment to incorpo-rate unmanned aircraft.

In March 2012, ICAO adopted significantamendments to Annexes 2 and 7 to theChicago Convention (Rules of the Air, andAircraft Nationality and Registration Marks,respectively), effective from November 2012.The changes positioned unmanned aircraftwithin the ICAO regulatory framework andrequired them to be approved in accordancewith national regulations and ICAO Annexes.

Detailed requirements were introduced forRPA(S) certification and maintenance, operatorand remote pilot certification and licensing.Information to be included in a request forapproval of an operation was specified.

Further SARPs are under development, toapply from November 2016. These will coverRPA airworthiness, RPAS and operatorapproval, RPAS components and remote pilotlicenses. Additional work is required on ATMstandards and procedures.

An RPAS Guidance Manual is being devel-oped for 2014, and ICAO plans to host anRPAS Symposium in 2014.

International Telecommunication UnionUse of radio-frequency spectrum for RPASlinks has to be approved by the ITU, which in2009 calculated spectrum requirements forControl and Non-Payload Communications(CNPC) as:

● Line-of-sight (LOS) — terrestrialsystems: 34 MHz

● Beyond line-of-sight (BLOS) — satellitesystems: 56 MHz.

The 2012 World RadiocommunicationConference (WRC 12) allocated the 5030 to5091 MHz band for RPAS CNPC links,and referred the formal allocation of

frequencies in the

F i x e dSatellite Service bands to

the next Conference in 2015 (WRC-15) forconsideration.

Integration in EuropeSESARThe SESAR programme aims to deliversignificant improvements to European ATMby 2020. The programme is run by theSESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU).

The SESAR Concept of Operations andthe ATM Master Plan adopt the widelyaccepted principle that UAS will conform tothe same air navigation system as mannedaircraft. SESAR aims to design a flexiblesystem which can accommodate all types ofair traffic. A number of core SESAR WorkPackages address key requirements for RPASIntegration: Owww.aerosociety.com April 2013 Aerospace International 15O

● WP9 — Aircraft Systems — aims to iden-tify technical solutions for all categoriesof aircraft, covering all airborne functionsfrom 4D Trajectory Management (4DTM) and the Airborne SeparationAssistance System (ASAS) to SystemWide Information Management (SWIM,the information backbone of the futureair navigation system) and ADS-B

● WP11 Flight Operations Centre Systemscovers airspace user flight planning andother interactions with the SESARsystem

● WP15 Non-Avionic CNS(Communication, Navigation andSurveillance) System includes datalinks,satellite communications, ACAS, ADS-Band satellite navigation

● WP E Long Term and InnovativeResearch covers a range of subjects andincludes the ALIAS project, which isworking on legal liability.

SESAR commissioned a study (ICONUS)carried out in 2012 to define an initial concept

of operations forRPAS in the SESAR

environment. The study iden-tified actions required in the areas

of legal liability (see ALIAS above),ATM procedures, C2, DAA, human

factors, contingency and security.SESAR RPAS integration activities are now

being aligned with the EC’s RPAS IntegrationRoadmap (see below) and will be incorpo-

rated into the ATM Master Plan. TheSJU has close links with

Eurocontrol, the FAA andthe NextGen project. At the beginning of

February the SJU invited proposals for inte-gration demonstration projects. Projects willfocus on safety, capacity and efficiency,airport integration and airspace throughput,and security. Each project will involve as aminimum an RPAS operator and an ANSP.

The European Commission (EC)The EC set up a European RPAS SteeringGroup (ERSG) in 2012. Membershipincludes the EC, the SESAR JointUndertaking, Eurocontrol, EASA,EUROCAE, JARUS and other relevantorganisations, who will perform the activitiesin the new EC ‘Roadmap for safe RPAS inte-gration into the European Air System’. TheRoadmap addresses regulatory, R&D and

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social and liability aspects. It describes a 15-year strategy for integration from 2016. It isexpected to be agreed in early 2013 and will berevised annually.

In the draft Roadmap, activities are in fivestrands based on combinations of operatingheight, flight rules (VFR/IFR) and line-of-sight criteria. The main timescales aresummarised in the panel on the right; the lastcolumn indicates the likely size (small/large)of R&D effort as estimated by SESAR.

Within each strand, the Roadmap identifiesthe key activities for Regulation, Detect andAvoid, C2, Flight Planning, Human Factors,Security, Liability and Insurance, Privacy,Contingency, SES implications and infra-structure.

The ERSG will monitor the deployment ofthe EC Roadmap.

EurocontrolThe European Organisation for the Safety ofAir Navigation (Eurocontrol) works closelywith ICAO, the European Organisation forCivil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE),SESAR, the European Aviation SafetyAgency (EASA) and the Federal AviaitonAdministration (FAA). A joint civil/militaryorganisation, Eurocontrol brings a broadperspective to integration and has issued keyguidance material of continuing relevance,including:

● Specifications for the use of (military)remotely piloted aircraft as operational airtraffic outside segregated airspace

● Air traffic management guidelines forGlobal/ Euro Hawk in European airspace

● Unmanned aircraft systems – ATM colli-sion avoidance requirements.

The current Eurocontrol focal point for inte-gration is the UAS ATM IntegrationProgramme. A regulatory gap analysis is inprogress. Eurocontrol will continue to supportthe EC Roadmap as well as providing supportto States in their own work on integration.

EASAEASA has legal competence over the safety ofcivil UAS with an operating mass of over150kg and liaises with counterparts aroundthe world.

EASA is working on the transposition intoEuropean regulations of the 2012 changes toAnnex 2 and is carrying out a number ofresearch studies and activities.

EASA plans to develop rules for UAS opera-

NATO NATO is actively pursuing integration,through the Joint Capability Group forUnmanned Aerial Vehicles (including theFINAS (Flight in Non-segregated Airspace)working group), which has developed militarystandards such as Stanag 4586 (standard inter-faces for NATO UAV control systems) and isdedicated to collaboration for common solu-tions to RPAS integration. The FINAS groupparticipates in the ICAO UASSG and worksclosely with the EDA on DAA.

MIDCAS The MIDCAS (Mid-air Collision AvoidanceSystem) project, established in 2009 byFrance, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden,aims to develop a generic sense-and-avoidsolution with a multi-national industry team.A demonstrator system has been developedfor flight testing in a host RPA in 2013.

European Defence Agency (EDA) The European Defence Agency (EDA) hasbeen active in RPAS integration since 2005.The Joint Investment Programme on UASwas established in 2012, for research anddevelopment leading to integration. The EDAis a member of the ERSG, and is closely asso-ciated with the MIDCAS project.

Key integration activity inthe USAFAA and NextGenIn 2012, the US Congress acted to acceleratethe integration of non-military RPAS. TheFAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012

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tions, licensing and maintenance from 2013 to2017, and for airworthiness from 2014 to2018.

EUROCAE EUROCAE deals with standardisation ofairborne and ground systems and equipment,working closely with the RTCA in the US topromote interoperability and providing tech-nical input to EASA.

Two Working Groups are specificallyconcerned with UAS:

● WG73 — UAs of over 150kg

● WG93 — UA activities under 150kg

In 2011, WG73 published a Concept for UASAirworthiness Certification and OperationalApproval in five volumes. A further volume,on Command and control, is in preparation(as at March 2013). WG93 is currentlyworking on both VLOS and BVLOS light UAoperations.

JARUSJARUS (Joint Authorities for Rulemaking onUnmanned Systems) is a group of expertsfrom aviation authorities and regional safetyorganisations world-wide, originally formedto harmonise light UAS regulation in Europe.

JARUS recommends requirements for UAScertification and integration. It has close linkswith ICAO, EASA, Eurocontrol and theFAA, and acts as a contact point betweennational authorities and EUROCAE. Currentwork areas include detect-and-avoid, systemsafety requirements and communications.

Height band Flight rules/ Initial Limited Full R&Dline of sight operations access integration

Below 500' AGL VLOS — Visual line of sight(VLL- very low (within 500 metre of 2013 - 2016 Slevel) the Remote pilot)

EVLOS — Extended visual line of sight 2013 - 2017 S(beyond 500 metres, pilot supported by observers)

BVLOS — Beyond visual line of sight 2015 2017 2019 LAbove 500' AGL (within and IFR 2015 2019 2022 Lbeyond radio line-of-sight) VFR 2019 2023 2025 L

EC Roadmap for safe RPAS integration

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(FMRA) required the FAA to take a numberof steps to integrate unmanned aircraft intothe US National Airspace (NAS). A key targetis to achieve safe integration of civil UAS by30 September 2015.

The FAA established the UnmannedAircraft Systems Integration Office (UASIO)as their focal point for efforts to integrateUAs (covering overall planning and UAS-related R&D) and as the flight authorisationauthority.

The FAA has:

● initiated a programme to set up six testranges to test all aspects of UAS integra-tion and enable the FAA to gather perfor-mance, safety and reliability data. After adelay of about six months due to privacyand safety concerns, the test site selectionprocess resumed in February 2013 with adefined privacy approach

● begun development of necessary guid-ance and standards for public UAS opera-tions

● taken steps to streamline and improve theexisting UA flight authorisation process,and expedited approval for emergencymissions

● made progress in the production of plan-ning documents for integration.

FAA research priorities include sense-and-avoid technology (eight projects), control andcommunication, standards for aircraft certifi-cation and maintenance, and human factors.The FAA is working with relevant agencies toaddress privacy and national security aspectsof integration.

In September 2012, the FAA produced aUAS Integration Concept of Operations(Conops) document, describing how integra-tion of RPAS will affect the services to beprovided for US airspace and vice versa. TheConops explores a number of usage scenariosin all classes of airspace and is a core elementof the integration planning framework and akey input to the NextGen initiative.

NextGen aims to modernise US air naviga-tion by developing a sophisticated flexible,satellite-based air navigation system for alltypes of air traffic, including unmanned. Thework plan contains a number of operationalimprovements, enablers, research activitiesand policy issues relating to UAS operations.NextGen will fund validation of the FAAConops.

Research activities were mapped in the

tested an ADS-B installation in a Predator,and is working with the DoD.

DoDThe Department of Defense is also workingon UAS integration including DAA, and hasproduced a Conops document, a long-termroadmap including airspace integration, and aphased UAS Airspace Integration Plan.

AUVSIThe Association for Unmanned VehicleSystems International (AUVSI) has produceda Code of Conduct for UAS operations,emphasising safety, professionalism andrespect (including respect for privacy).

ConclusionAs can be seen above, progress is being made.Understanding of the requirements is maturing,research and development is under way, andfurther detailed plans are being prepared.

One issue stands out — privacy, which isoutside the direct control of ICAO and theprojects. It is essential that governments allaypublic concern by taking effective action toensure rights to privacy are respected.

The integration timescales set out by ICAOare not unrealistic but may be difficult toachieve. The air navigation system is in theearly stages of massive change and resourcesare already stretched. It is essential that regula-tors and projects deploy sufficient resourcesand focus them effectively. Adequate timemust be allowed for resolving the issues,exploiting opportunities and assuring safety.

Unmanned aircraft systems bring newhazards along with their benefits, and safety isthe overriding priority. O

Examples of a military jet, civil aircraft and UAV on display at NASA Dryden Flight ResearchCenter — all three types of which could fly together in the same airspace in the future.

NextGen UAS Research, Development andDemonstration Roadmap (March 2012),which covers Communications, AirspaceOperations, Unmanned Aircraft and HumanSystems Integration.

The Joint Planning and DevelopmentOffice (JPDO) manages NextGen and co-ordinates US research and integration efforts,including the development of the UASComprehensive Plan which will define

● strategic goals, objectives and targets

● a phased approach for small and largeUAS

● the necessary research, demonstrationand deployment projects.

Publication of the Comprehensive Plan andthe FAA’s five-year roadmap for civil UAS isexpected in 2013.

RTCAAt the FAA’s request, the RTCA’s SC-203committee has been working to develop UAsystem performance standards for sense-and-avoid and communication, command andcontrol. Delivery of the standards is expectedby the end of 2013. RTCA is also working withEUROCAE on a UAS classification system.

NASAThe National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA) is conductingresearch into separation assurance, communi-cations, human systems integration and certi-fication.

NASA is supporting the JPDO in produc-tion of the Comprehensive Plan. NASA has

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